Ghanaz had once been a hospitable planet which was inhabited by experimental subjects under Nirrti's rule and was used as a breeding ground for these subjects. Once it entered an ice age around 1000, with its sun beginning a helium-burning phase which meant that it was reduced in size and less energy reached the planet, Nirrti gave up on the planet and it became abandoned. (RPG: "Friends and Foes: Stargate Season Two")

Since then, the Stargate stood on a glacier while the rest of the world became a ball of ice and snow too. When the Tok'ra came to the planet, they built their tunnels into the rocks of a mountain range near the Stargate so that they could easily escape if need be. After the Goa'uld attacked P34-353J, the Tok'ra escaped to Ghanaz as a temporary measure in the hopes that the System Lords would not find them on the otherwise uninhabited world; they had chosen this planet long before the attack so they were able to make a quick getaway. They later left the world when they chose Vorash as their primary base of operations. (RPG: "Friends and Foes: Stargate Season Two")